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Ripe Jackfruit Cake / Pansache Dhonas

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Come the summer vacations, my Mom would pack the bags and we used to go to our maternal grand-mom’s place. We used to have lots of fun there. Going in the fields, plucking mangoes and guavas from a nearby farm and sometimes even going to Miramar beach and having fun. It was real fun then. We used to never know how those days got over so soon…
Just outside my Granny’s home was a big jackfruit tree. My uncle would ask some person to climb the tree and pick some of those large jackfruits. My Granny used to prepare a variety of dishes out of those. One such dish was Pansache Dhonas / Jackfruit Cake. Jackfruit means “Panas” in Konkani. Dhonas is a baked preparation made from jackfruit or cucumber,rava,grated coconut and jaggery. My Mom learnt from my Granny and she passed the recipe on to me.
This is a traditional dish in Goa. Normally the “rasal” variety of jackfruit is used as it gives better “mhov” meaning honey. I have never seen this recipe outside Goa. When I told my non-Goan friends about jackfruit cake, they were surprised and said “cake made out of jackfruit?”. I said “yes”… and here is the recipe.
Making this cake was a big achievement for me. I first thought of baking it. But the power went off, minutes before starting to bake… thanks to the frequent power cuts in Bangalore. Then I used my pressure cooker and tried the double boiler method. But I felt that the things were not going proper. So after 20 mins I shifted the cake to a frying pan and almost fried it… end result was awesome.

Ingredients:
2 cups jackfruit pulp
1 cup grated coconut
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup rawa/semolina
1 cup jaggery
2 tsp cardamon powder
10 chopped cashewnuts
5-10 chopped almonds
10 raisins

Procedure:

1) Roast the rawa till it is light brown or till aroma wafts into the air. Keep aside. Let it cool for atleast 20 minutes. Remove the jackfruit seeds and put them into a mixer and make a pulp out of it.

2) Mix all the other ingredients and put them into a flat baking dish.
You can either steam this cake or you can bake it.

I steamed the cake for 20 mins using double boiler method.
Then I kept a frying pan, spread 2 tablespoon ghee on it and fried the cake on both sides. Alternatively you can microwave this cake for 30 mins at 180C.
Insert a knife in the center of the cake, if it comes out clean, it means that the cake is done.

Also try watermelon rind cake, eggless banana cake with sugar, eggless banana rava cake with jaggery.

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Comments

  15. I have just backed it, it is beautiful, thanks for nice recipe, I used half cup sugar ,because i do not like jaggery.

    Reply

  17. Suhasini double boil means, keep one small utensil with the actual contents inside a bigger utensil with some water and to boil this.

    Reply

  19. I tried this cake yesterday. Instead of double boiler i baked the cake. It was very nice. everything was perfect. But baking required more than 30 mins. Approx 40 mins.

    Reply

  21. I said my husband enjoyed it , the baking time was more almost 40 mins for me too. It is moist and lovely ! Thanks a lot for the innovation Raksha.
    Arlene Senthilvel

    Reply

  25. Hi Raksha, can we make similar cake with ripe banana too? Since jackfruits are not available the whole year round. Please can you let me know. Thanks

    Reply

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